Oops
by Odin1
Summary: Flint, Tanis, and Tas are out on a walk. Adventure finds them. Reviews are welcome.


"Oops"

Tanis Half-Elven walked with Flint Fireforge and Tasslehoff Burrfoot, trying desperately to keep his longer strides under control, in an effort not to leave his shorter friends behind. He scratched his bare chin, and then ran his hands over his cheeks and shook the tiredness out of his head. His pointed ears poked through his reddish-brown hair, which was tied behind his head with a thin leather thong. His outfit consisted of doeskin breeches, and a matching doeskin vest, worn tightly over a white long-sleeve cotton shirt. Both the vest, and the breeches were fringed along the seams, and had colorful feathers hanging in unobtrusive places. 

"My knee hurts Tanis, can't we rest yet?" Flint mumbled, reaching a gnarled hand down and massaging his aching joint.

Tanis looked down at his friend; he knew that Flint must really be hurting if he actually voiced his opinion. The old dwarf was grumbling more and more of late, Tanis worried about him constantly, but he knew that Flint could handle himself. His notched axe hung at his wide hips, and his peppered beard hung to his belt and swung slightly with his measured, but limping steps.

Tasslehoff Burrfoot on the other hand, skipped lightly ahead of the group, swinging his hoopak over his head, making it whistle in a mournful tune. Normally the kender only used his forked weapon when trouble was around, but he was in too good of a mood to just have the forked piece of wood strapped to his back. He pushed through the branches, forgetting he had Flint and Tanis behind him when he let them go. Tasslehoff cringed as he heard the dwarf's angry grumbles coming from behind him.

"You doorknob! That is the millionth time you have done that today! How many times do I have to tell you not to let the branches go! They smack me right in the face!" Flint raised his voice, grabbing Tas by the topknot and dragging him backwards roughly. The dwarf's face was red with rage, his lips moved for more words to come out, but he was too angry to speak.

"Ouch! Flint that hurts! You are going to pull my topknot right out of my head!" Tas whined, smacking the dwarf's hand off of his hair. The kender turned and looked at Flint, raising his hoopak above his head to smack the dwarf on the head. "Why Flint! Look at all the scratches on your face! How did that happen? Did you trip over your own feet?" Tas asked innocently, lowering his weapon.

"Why you!" Flint's face turned red as a tomato. Before the dwarf could do anything though, Tas straightened his fur vest, dusted off his blue leggings, and skipped off quickly ahead.

"Don't worry Flint, I will clear all the rocks off of the trail for you!" The kender called from ahead.

"That doorknob of a kender! Doesn't he realize what he is doing?" Flint all but sputtered.

Tanis laughed silently and patted his best friend on his shoulder. The dwarf was like a father to him, a father that always was there for him, one that always cared about his pains and sorrows.

"Tas will always be Tas. Innocent to the world, but full of energy that can never be sated." Tanis said, plucking a few twigs and leaves from the dwarf's beard.

Flint dusted off his brown leather pants, and readjusted his tan cotton shirt. "He may be innocent to the world, but if he smacks me in the face with a branch one more time, it is going to take Paladine himself to keep my hands off of his scrawny neck."

Tanis smiled slightly, "I think your feelings for him run deeper than you think. I think that Tas is probably one of your best friends."

Flint snorted, "The kender!? Great Reorx's forge! That thieving little monstrosity will never be one of my best friends. I mean, sure, I worry about him once and awhile- once and awhile, mind you! But a friend? No, that goes too far. He has no respect for his elders." He finished with a harrumph.

Tanis just nodded with a small smile on his face, "OK Flint, I get it. Just deal with him, I don't want to have to carry a immobilized kender into Solace, along with an old dwarf who can hardly walk!"

Flint bristled, "Why, I have never felt better in my life. I could walk fifteen more miles today!" he said importantly, forcing himself to walk as normal as he could.

Tanis watched his friend with a sad smile. He tried hard, he had to give him that. But he could see the waves of pain that crossed Flint's face as he walked across the uneven ground. The dwarf was getting old, going on his mid-one hundreds. Not really old for a dwarf, but according to Flint, he should be sitting in front of a fire on his favorite rocking chair, whittling a piece of wood.

"Don't worry my friend, we will stop and rest in a minute." Tanis rested his hand on Flint's sturdy shoulder.

"Aye, thanks lad. My body can't go on the adventures that it used to." Flint patted Tanis's hand, and limped along down the trail.

Just then, Tasslehoff came bursting through the underbrush, breathing heavily with flushed cheeks. The kender was waving his hoopak wildly over his head, the loud whining sound, shutting out every other noise in the forests on the outskirts of Solace.

"Flint! Tanis! Goblins are coming! A whole mess of them! They are ugly and stinky and…oh, did I mention they are coming his way?" Tasslehoff skidded to a halt before the two surprised friends.

"Trust a kender to get us in trouble with goblins! And with my sore knee! Reorx!" Flint swore.

Tanis pulled the bow from his shoulder, he pulled an arrow from his quiver quickly, and fitted the feathered shaft, and pulled back the string, testing the draw. He looked around quickly, no sign of the goblins yet, but he could hear the creatures crashing through the undergrowth. They were close, very close.

"What are goblins doing so close to home? It is rare that a group of the monsters are ever this close to Solace." Tanis wondered, raising his bow and aiming in the direction in which the monsters would appear. "Can your knee hold up? Just for a few minutes?" The half-elf asked Flint quickly.

"Aye lad, my knee will always hold out when there is a battle to be fought!" Flint said with a wink, pulling his axe out of the loop in his belt and smacking the head of the weapon on his palm.

Tanis smiled, and then looked around for the kender. "Tas? Where are you?" 

"Here Tanis!" came the kender's reply from somewhere behind him.

The half-elf didn't dare look behind him to see just where Tas was; the sounds from the goblins were getting too close. He looked around for anything that could help them in the upcoming battle. There didn't seem to be anything. They stood in a very small clearing, with trees and rough shrubs surrounding every inch around them, except for the thin trail that led in the direction in which the goblins were coming. He pulled back the string of the bow again, testing its draw, feeling a comfort wash over him from the customary sound of stretching hide and the jingle of Flint's armor.

"Tas, how many are there exactly?" Tanis asked quickly.

"About ten," came the reply.

Ten goblins, not too hard for him and the dwarf to take care of. They had faced worse odds before, and they usually always came out on top, with only a few cuts and scratches to show for it. He looked down at Flint, who was squared off, holding his wicked axe in front of his body.

"Are you ready for this?" He asked softly.

"I'm always ready to kill a few goblins!" Flint flashed Tanis a toothy smile.

Tanis smiled in return, and then turned his attention back to the trail ahead. He could hear the goblins whooping now; he could smell their putrid odor. It sickened him, he hated goblins as much as Flint, and he was ready to kill a few.

"Tas, you just stay there!" Tanis called over his shoulder, just as the first goblin burst into the small clearing.

Tanis fired an arrow into the monsters eye, dropping it to the ground like a puppet. He quickly pulled another arrow from his quiver, and fitted it into his bow, firing again, and this time taking a goblin right under its slobbery chin.

"Hey, let me have a few!" Flint complained, and when the next goblin came bursting into the clearing, it quickly found an axe buried deep into its neck. Flint pulled the axe out of the goblin's collarbone with a sickening crunch, and then with a yell, swung around in a half circle, and buried the head of his weapon into the chest of another goblin. This one went down with a scream that ended quickly, as the life left its body.

Tanis fired arrow after arrow, taking down the shrieking monsters quickly, all of them with feathered shafts still quivering in their bodies as they fell. Flint was just as brutal, slamming his axe in, and tearing it out quickly, only to bury it into the body of another goblin.

Soon after the battle started, it was over. All the goblins were dead or dying in the small clearing. Flint walked around and finished off those that were still squirming. He did it without remorse. He had seen too many villages in his years of adventuring that had been raided by goblins, and burnt down. He thought back to those times now, seeing the slain innocent citizens in the street, and letting those visions guide his axe.

"These things sure do stink!" Flint said, as he pulled his weapon out of the ground, after neatly decapitating a wounded goblin. "Bah, you got more than me lad! You are too good with that bow!" the dwarf said, walking around slowly and fingering the feathered shafts that stuck out of the dead goblins.

Tanis just smiled, and went around, pulling the arrows from the dead bodies, and after cleaning them off on the dead goblin's rags, slid them back into his quivers. "Why are there goblin's this close to Solace?" he asked his dwarf friend.

"I don't know. They are probably part of a bandit party. Though, they didn't have much leadership for a band of mercenaries." Flint reasoned.

Tanis nodded his agreement, and then looked around the clearing quickly. "Tas? Tas, where are you?" he asked loudly.

"Up here Tanis! Look I made it all the way up here!" came the kender's shrill call from above.

Tanis and Flint both looked up, watching as Tasslehoff jumped over the thick branches of a young vallenwood tree. The kender skipped across the branch, kicking off leaves and sending them raining down from above.

"Great Reorx! How did you get all the way up there?" Flint sputtered, being afraid of heights, the sight of Tas skipping along the branches made him physically ill.

Tas smacked his forehead with his palm, "how did I get up here? Well I climbed of course! I swear Flint; sometimes you can be so lost. I don't know what you would do without me to guide you!"

"Guide…what? Why you couldn't…" Flint sputtered.

Tanis laid a calming hand on his friend's shoulder. "Calm down Flint, he is just being his normal kender self."

Flint grumbled, but finally nodded and calmed down. "Fine, fine! You doorknob, get down here!" Flint yelled into the treetops.

"Alright, turn around now!" came a voice from behind Flint and Tanis. Up above, a slight rustling could be heard in the branches.

Tanis and Flint turned around slowly, facing the figure that had just spoken. It was a human, Tanis noticed, and the man had an arrow knocked and pointed at them. He was dressed in rusty chain-mail armor, over what seemed to be a dingy cotton shirt. The man's leather pants were ripped and patched in many places, and covered in dirt and mud.

"You fools! You killed my goblins!" the man said, drawing back the string of his bow.

Tanis put his hands up slightly, keeping his fingers well away from the arrows in his quiver. Flint slowly put the head of his axe onto the ground, watching the man with the bow from under his bushy eyebrows. 

"Who are you? What are you doing leading goblins?" Tanis asked softly, trying not to provoke the man. His mind was racing though, wondering where that blasted kender could have gone to. He hoped that Tas, had gone for help, but knowing the kender, the likelihood of that was pretty slim.

"Who I am, is of no importance to you! All you need know is that I am going to kill you for killing my goblins! They were going to help me raid that miserable town of Solace!" the dirty man said, a sneer curling up on his lips.

"You miserable…" Flint said, his face turning red with rage.

"Don't start you stupid dwarf! That town deserves to be destroyed! Every miserable person in that town hides in their trees, afraid to come on the ground and face the real world." The man said, his arrow pointed straight at the boiling dwarf.

"You speak boldly for one who has allied himself with goblins! And speaking of goblins, how were you hoping to take over Solace with only a handful of goblins?" Tanis asked, his hand inching towards his quiver.

"Half-elf, bastard half-elf, why must you go and be so bold?" The man brought his arrow around and pointed it at Tanis. "Solace is weak, I could bring that town down by myself." The dirty man spoke boldly, puffing out his thin chest.

"Arrgghhh," Flint yelled, and rushed towards the bandit, his axe held above his head. "Now you die!" he yelled as he barreled towards the man.

Everything happened so fast then, Tanis screamed for Flint to stop, but the dwarf was too enraged to listen to reason. The bandit brought his arrow around and fired, the shaft flew through the air and struck Flint in the shoulder, slicing a clean line in it, and passing on to stick into a tree. 

Tanis quickly fit an arrow into his bow, but as Flint whirled in pain, his ax flipped through the air, coming towards Tanis and throwing off his shot. The arrow whistled past the bandit's ear, and crashed through the bushes beyond him. Before he could load another arrow, the evil man had his own weapon pointed down at the fallen dwarf.

"I wouldn't half-elf, not if you value your friend's life!" the man said with an evil smile, showing his dirty yellow teeth.

Tanis again lowered his bow; he let it fall to the ground reluctantly. His only hope was that the man would be distracted somehow, and he could get a shot in before he recovered. He looked around at the goblin bodies on the ground. He saw a few daggers that he could use, but getting to them would be harder than it looked. And if he did get a dagger, Flint would probably be dead before he got a chance to use it.

"Stupid half-elf, now your friend dies!" The bandit pulled back the taunt string of his bow, and aimed for Flint's head.

The dwarf looked up at the man and snarled, and spit in the face of brigand that stood over him. His look of hatred slowly faded into a smile, and soon the dwarf was laughing, laughing as an arrow was pointed directly at him.

"What are you laughing at dwarf?" the man snarled.

"You!" Flint laughed, rubbing a finger under his eye to get rid of the tear that was about to fall down his cheek.

"Oh yeah? And what is so funny about me?" 

Just then, a yelling kender came falling from the tree branches above the bandit's head. Tas brought his hoopak down quickly, smashing it into the top of the man's head, and knocking him to the side. "No one kills my friends!" Tas yelled, raising his weapon again, ready to smash it into the man's snarling face.

The bandit got up on one knee, fitting his arrow back into the bow and pulling back quickly, but before he could fire the shaft at the kender, Flint's axe crashed into his ribs, cutting deep, and an arrow came flying through the air, slicing right into the man's heart.

His bow fell from his numb hands, and he let out one more pain filled gasp, and then fell to the muddy ground, quite dead. Flint stood up painfully, putting a hand over his torn shoulder, to hold in the blood.

Tasslehoff spun his hoopak over his head, and then slammed the metal tip into the ground with a dull thud. "How'd I do?" he asked, a smile splitting his cheery face.

"Ugh, you did the job of a kender," Flint grunted, sitting back down on the leafy ground.

"Did you see that guy's face? I came down from the tree and WHAM! He didn't know what hit him!" Tas broke into a fit of laughter.

Tanis came over quickly, cutting a strip from the dead man's shirt and tying it around Flint's wounded shoulder to stop the bleeding. "I guess we both got him huh? Are you OK?" he asked Flint, carefully dressing the dwarf's wounded shoulder.

"Aye, I'm fine. Yeah we got him good!" Flint smiled and stood up slowly. "Let's get to Otik's. I'm in need of some spicy potatoes and some of his best ale." He limped around slowly, testing his shoulder gingerly.

"Yeah, I could use some of Otik's spicy potatoes too," Tanis said, shouldering his bow and handing Flint his axe.

The dwarf smiled his thanks, and pushed Tas to get the kender moving. "We are going home now?" Tas asked, his smile showing true happiness.

"Aye, we are going home now!" Flint said to the kender with a smile. 

Tas smiled and skipped ahead of Flint and Tanis. The two friends looked at each other and shared a smile. Tas had saved both their lives, but the kender just thought of it as another adventure. They knew that Tas would always be there for them, no matter what, and they were glad for that. They were lucky for the friends they had. Tanis shook his head, Tas would probably save the world one day, he mused to himself.

WHACK, a tree branch smacked Flint in the face.

"Oops, sorry Flint!" came Tas's voice from up ahead.

"That little…" the dwarf grumbled, and took off through the brush, the pain in his shoulder and knee forgotten.

Laughing, Tanis followed his friends. Some things would never change.

****I had this story originally posted on Dragonlance.com's fanfic section. But I decided I would upload it here so more people could read it. Hope you enjoyed****


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